What Recovering From An Eating Disorder Looks Like

What It Looks Like To Recover From An Eating Disorder

Over a year after beginning to recover from an eating disorder, Holly Griffiths is opening up about the moment she began to realize that healing was possible.

On Tuesday, Griffiths posted two side-by-side images of herself to document the progress she's made.

"When I posted the photo on the left I wrote in the caption that I had bloated thighs," she wrote. "What???!?!!?! Almost eighteen months ago I ate a pizza and kept it down and it was that day that made me seriously consider recovery as a viable option and as something that I may be able to do."

At the time, she wrote, she didn't know how she would even begin to recover, and had "very little hope" that she'd get to where she wanted to be. But looking back on her journey, she said, "now I'm here and I can't imagine that I could fall back down to where I was."

"What this shows me is just because I can't imagine something doesn't mean it isn't possible," she wrote. "But it also shows me how much I am capable of and that gives me faith when I think about a possibility of relapse."

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from an eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating.

As the Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders organization reports, while more research needs to be done, an estimated over 60% of those who receive treatment will recover from eating disorders, and 20% will make "partial recoveries," but 20% don't recover even with treatment.

While the journey to recovery will look and feel different to different people, Griffiths's story is a reminder that recovery is possible, even if it doesn't feel like it.

"If I am strong enough to get this far I am strong enough to hold on even when times are hard," she wrote.